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 Personalized or precision medicine, which tailors treatment to a
patient's genetic profile, is an increasing focus for drug
companies, especially after an initiative from U.S. President Barack
Obama in January.
Until now, however, the focus has been on cancer, where genetic
mutations are well-known drivers of disease.
"The time is now right to extend the personalized healthcare
approach and the benefits it brings to all of our therapy areas,"
Ruth March, who heads the initiative at the British drugmaker, told
reporters.
"Up to now the science of personalized healthcare has been slower to
reach those common disease areas such as cardiovascular and
respiratory disease."
To redress the balance, AstraZeneca said on Wednesday it had signed
two deals, one with Abbott Laboratories for a diagnostic test to
accompany an experimental asthma drug and another with Canadian
scientists on genes associated with heart disease.
Abbott will develop a diagnostic test to identify patients with
severe asthma who are most likely to benefit from AstraZeneca's new
antibody drug tralokinumab, which is in final-stage Phase III
clinical tests.
To date, there are no such approved blood tests for use in asthma.
A separate tie-up with the Montreal Heart Institute will screen
samples from up to 80,000 patients for genetic traits linked to
cardiovascular disease and diabetes, in a program that may help
doctors work out which patient should take which drug.
By 2020, AstraZeneca expects half of its new drug launches will come
with so-called companion diagnostics to identify those patients most
likely to benefit from different treatments.
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This approach is already used in cancer, with Roche's breast cancer
drug Herceptin and AstraZeneca's lung cancer medicine Iressa, for
example, given to patients with particular genetic profiles.
Cancer has long been a key area for AstraZeneca, which was the
target of a $118 billion attempted takeover last year by Pfizer.
Along with rivals in the field, AstraZeneca will showcase its latest
cancer drug advances at the May 29 to June 2 American Society of
Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.
Industry analysts say most attention will be focused on the latest
clinical data on AstraZeneca's combination of two experimental
medicines, MEDI4736 and tremelimumab, in treating lung cancer.
(Editing by David Holmes)
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